


The Blood of a Queen

by TheOnlyHuman



Series: AU: Deep Claws [6]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Female Dick Grayson, Female Talon Dick Grayson, Hurt Dick Grayson, Injury, Jason is a good husband, Swearing, bane is a dick, bruce is 'dead' during this, the Rows are part of the fam, they have patrol squads now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 06:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18360872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlyHuman/pseuds/TheOnlyHuman
Summary: (2021.)Not in a million years had any of them expected anything likethisto happen.





	The Blood of a Queen

**Author's Note:**

> Duo is Harper.  
> Gotham is Cullen.

 

 

It's her turn to leave the kids off at school, namely Damian and Cullen, and, as usual, it's a quiet affair of Damian threatening feline-Alfred to _pee in the litter box, or so help me, Alfred_ , and Cullen fretting over his English that Jason had to force him to do. No Duke today, seeing as the boy was bedridden (per human Alfred's orders) with a bad case of the flu.

She drives them, enjoys the way the wind flushes her hair back in the convertible, enjoys the sun, and drains out the sound of the boy's well-meaning squabbles from the back seats. The heat of their eighty degree fahrenheit march is nice and for now, whilst not in skin-tight kevlar, she bathes in it, making sure to kiss both boys on the forehead in front of most of the school because she's petty like that.

When Rachel sits back down in the convertible she sits for a moment, conscious of the cars behind her but not much caring. A warmth she knows not of the sun blooms in her chest and she gets the distinct feeling that Bruce should be the one here.

But Bruce is dead.

Body long gone, coffin long empty, but he's rotting where no-one deserves; in hell. Not even the Batman warranted such misery, such pain. He was merely, in heart, a sad, lost little boy that never made it to Neverland, after all. Since when had it been condign to sentence one such as he, a hero in his own right and many more, to a fate so bad as quietus?

Bruce never deserved death.

The car behind her reved its engine and she blinked behind her sunglasses, firing up her own and switching gear. The bad feeling in her gut remained even as she drove out of Gotham University's gates.

 

 

The heat is nigh unbearable by the time they're suiting up. Jason is growling as he tugs on his leather jacket, Tim is having trouble slicking back his hair to get it into his cowl and Stephanie's having her own mini wrestling match with Cassandra's cape, trying to pull it out of the shoulder lock it's stored in.

Rachel is not left untouched by the chaos, shooting Barbara a well-natured glare as the Oracle chuckles at how her suit just _wont zip up._ The sweat she's producing isn't helping and with the looming feeling of disaster having become a stone weight in her chest, she can barely breathe.

"Glad I'm not climbing into Batwoman's suit tonight," the treacherous two-timer smirked. She rocked the spin chair from side to side, watching with glowing glasses as they all struggled. "Thank the gods Duke decided to be sick today."

"Another claim of upheaval and you'll be joining us in-suit, Oracle." Nightwing hissed, finally stepping into her boots. She hit her insignia and they melded with her legs, her suit truly becoming skin-tight.

Her chest felt heavy and for a moment she toyed with the thought that maybe, at an official 43 years old, she was getting a bit too old for their type of gig.

Oracle tossed her hands up, sarcasm dripping from her words. "Oh, please no! I'll do anything, Nightwing, anything!"

"Well, if you're sure," she starts, brushing away stray thoughts. She doesn't need another mental rebellion.

"I was joking—" Oracle is quick to cut in.

Red Hood laughs. "How 'bout some _real_ drinks when we get back, yeah?"

Oracle raises an eyebrow at Hood, who's putting off putting his helmet on, his hands on his hips.

"Please," Spoiler drags out the syllables. Black Bat pulls her puppy dog -courtesy of Harper's teachings- eyes out whilst Gotham and Duo try to make themselves appear as innocent as possible. Robin doesn't even try to ask and Red Robin has his head stuck in his holo projector.

"Only for the older ones," Oracle says at last, but they all know the others will get their share later.

New movement in the sewers brings up a systematic mapline with a ping. Killer Croc's lifesignal a bright purple against the hazy blue of the blueprints.

Nightwing clears her throat, checks her gauntlet for the time and and nods over at the spin-table. "I believe it's about time we got out there. Patrol C can take the Batmobile today."

"Yes," comes Spoiler's excited squeal not a second later.

 

 

Robin breaks off to patrol with her as Hood breaks off with Cullen's reformed Gotham.

"How was school?" She's long past the shame of asking this question on patrol, they have busy lives, and sometimes they don't all eat dinner at the table.

"Satisfactory," Robin answers. "I still believe my English Professor is a fool but aside from that there is nothing special of note."

"C been doing well?" The comms are on standby, silent on all ends but Oracles, so Gotham can't hear their conversation.

"The bullying has ceased after my intervention," the boy says proudly, smugly. The feeling in her gut is only multiplied at the thought of what state the other boys could've been in to achieve _that_ look.

"Peaceful intervention, I hope," she says but knows it's a hope long without cause. Like a child's daydreams, the want is misplaced and never going to happen.

"Assured," Robin nods curtly. "No-one was harmed irreversibly."

Nightwing holds back her sigh, jumping and tucking into a roll as they jump a particularly wide alley. After she steadies herself a look down has her grunting, "Hold."

Robin sweeps back from where he'd been ready to jump to the next roof and blinks down at the scene. Bane is standing there, tank top dirty but ragged enough at the seams to show he's probably transformed at least once already. There's a huddle of people, young, scraggy, no doubt homeless, in the middle of a circle that has all of his six goon's attention.

Bane's been out of Arkham for two months now. Nightwing's pretty sure that's longer than he's ever been out of any type of prison. She's also sure that he's long overdue his suppressant meds, meaning turning into his hulked out form is going to take even less time.

She wondered if that had a part in why the venom lining his tubes was _purple._

"Protocol?" Robin whispers, crouching down to blend in with the roof due to his bright colours while Nightwing could afford to stand tall with her cape swallowing her up like Batman's once used to.

"I'll run distraction with Bane, you get the goons and the civilians out."

"Understood," Robin says and takes the initiative to call Oracle, "Oracle, if you could alert the GCPD to the imminent arrival of Bane it would be appreciated at a later date."

// ** _No problem, kid. Have fun._** \\\

Nightwing spares Hood's disappointed response of _how come they get all the fun?_ no riposte, instead focusing her efforts on making a large daunting shadow with her snag-tailed cape, flinging it out like Bats had always took secret pleasure in doing.

"It's the Bat!" A goon wailed, gun seemingly becoming lead in their hand as they shook, eyes wide under their bandana. Robin cackled and a few others joined the man in defensive stances.

"How good to see you, amigo, I thought—" Bane started. He blinked at her when she landed in front of him, taking in the red bat insignia and the quite obvious feminism. He seemed saddened when he spoke. "Ah, only Nightwing."

"I wouldn't seem so disappointed, Bane." She growled, voice rough and heart thumping with the adrenalin of the soon to come facing the man down. "I can hand you your ass just as easily as Batman can."

It took an unholy amount of effort to not use the past tense. Bane just laughed.

"My dear _girl,_ I would not worry about the Bat. We all know." He looked over her shoulder to include his men but found them all gone, Robin shuffling the civilians out of the alleyway that seemed too wide and too long with his katana. "Oh, that is not very nice."

Nightwing shrugged unapologetically, "We're working on it."

Bane cracked his knuckles, his face growing dark with a frown. "Ever heard of the expression, 'the failure of discipline is not the child's fault, but in the parent's shortcomings'?"

"I—" she raised an eyebrow. "Not that I'm aware of, no."

"Ah, well, I shall have to teach you that too." He lunged with a roar.

Growling, Rachel ducked his growing hand, going for her swords only to be slammed harshly into the brick wall. Her swords, unsheathed, clattered away noisily. And yep, his transformation time had certainly improved without those _much needed_ suppressants.

"Nightwing—!" Robin shouted, whirling around despite the scared huddle of people still stuck in the alley. It appeared some of them were injured. He made a jerky move, as if stuck between aiding her or getting the people out.

"Get them out!" She bit back the scream that threatened to bubble up out of her throat as the pit in her chest grew and morphed into panic that shrouded her senses as Bane grew fully. Robin turned and hustled the civilians along but, contrary to Nightwing's worry, he didn't charge for Robin.

Instead, he laughed down at her. "Seems the little bird is getting old, _sí?_ Not  _señorita_ now, hmm?" 

"I prefer _experienced,"_ She pushed herself forward, batarang popping from her belt to be shoved in his face. Bane caught it with ease and a calm unlike him. It was crushed with a cruel bark of laughter.

"Too old," he hummed, as if speaking to an elderly lady, or making a note of something to remember later. It made her growl, the anger growing as Bane released the batarang like dust, the chunks fluttering from his huge palm. "Far past your sell-by date, _señora._ "

Nightwing almost would've thought he was feeling sorry for her had he not stepped back a second later and laughed so loudly a rat in the adjacent dumpster feart and high-tailed it.

Frustrated she lashed out, heel coming up to find the hard cup protector over his lower regions. Bane laughed like she was nothing more than a disobedient puppy and stuck out a hand, grabbing her ankle and using it to spin her round, finally slamming her into the ground. She hissed through her front teeth, using her core to pull herself up and stab a batarang into his wrist, bunching up the skin there.

No blood came forth.

Bane was laughing so hard Nightwing toyed with the thought he'd inhaled some of Joker's laughing gas before he'd broken out. It would've been long out of his system by now though.

"Little _señora,_ I'm afraid that will not work! I just about believe becoming friends with Scarecrow was the best thing to ever do!"

Well, that explained the venoms colour change.

"Didn't know Scarecrow liked people like you," she grunted, pulling back her hand to backflip onto her feet. She used her foot to fling the first of her two swords that she saw into her hands. Brandishing it in front of herself she briefly spared Robin’s disappearance a thought.

What was taking him so long?

"What?" Bane asked, faking offense as he lumbered forward. The feeling that had been stalking her all day exploded within her, consuming her as Bane loomed over her. His grin was feral, his boxing mask contorting with the force of it. "What does Crane have against people like me? You saying I'm not a people person, Night?"

"Not at all, Crane just doesn't seem like one." She grunted, parring one of his hands and batting it away with her sword. Nightwing went forward, slashing a large gash down his tank top that immediately flushed red.

Bane opened his mouth to retort but cut himself off, frowning viciously at his blood. "Well, it seems Crane isn't as truthful as he says."

With that, he barreled towards her, hand pushing away her sword despite how she almost desperately tried to stab him. "Come here!" He howled, and as she hit the back of the alleyway's wall she could feel it vibrate behind her. The panic made her dizzy as he towered menacingly over her.

The last thing she will accurately recall is one of his too big hands curling around her arms. Then she's going up up up and down down down onto his knee, legs and arms pulled back, her back taking the brunt of his strength and—

 

 

Hood hears the scream and instantly freezes. Gotham stops beside him, his lips wavering from the stern grimace he called his _work face._ All thoughts of the _real_ drink they're about to get are banished and pushed down in favor of heart crushing _panic._

His helmet feels too small, the words of his HUD crawling like ants as they invade his sight.

"That's one loud scream," Gotham remarks, something like worry in his voice but Hood can't hear him over the thrum of his blood. He knows that scream. Knows what that sort of pain is, knows who it belongs to.

Because he knows Rachel and she doesn't scream unless she's dying.

He expects Oracle's rushed voice over the comms, yet he still jumps a second later at the fizz of static. // ** _All recon on Nightwing, I've lost contact with her. Last known encounter is Bane._** \\\

Now _that_ , _that_ gets his blood pressure high. He can't stop the steely snap of "What?" before its out and for five precious seconds, his wife's scream still echoing in his ears, the comm link is silent.

// ** _Co-ords?_** \\\ Spoiler asks immediately, once O's words sink in. When the fact that one of their own is _dow_ _n_ at the hands of Bane.

Red Hood knows for a fact Nightwing wasn't eqquipped with the sedatives to take down Bane. They'd done inventory last night, together, and the most she had was a couple gas pellets that still stood no chance against the Luchador's resistance. 

// ** _Brookview side of Tenth Street,_** \\\ Robin's quick to cut in. // ** _I was diverted to Eleventh due to civilian casulties. Status of Nightwing is unknown._** \\\

_But we all heard the scream,_ Hood thinks as Red Robin, who was patrolling in Dead End (all the way on the other half of the city) tonight, responds, // ** _It didn't sound good so we should assume the worst. Patrol C is converging, we're headed on over now. Anyone have the seds to take the overgrown lump down?_** \\\

A cold feeling envelopes Hood at the thought. The thought that an _overgrown lump_ just took down his wife. He can't bring himself to think of what damage could've brought Nightwing to _scream._

// ** _Second half of Patrol A is enroute,_** \\\ he growls without missing a beat.

// ** _I'm equipped with enough seds to take down a dinosaur. That enough?_** \\\ Duo asks, her voice showing her inexperience as it rings with concern and uncertainty.

_Harper and Cullen shouldn't be here,_ he thinks but instantly regrets it. They'll need all the help they can get if _Nightwing_ just got taken down.

// ** _Hopefully,_** \\\ Oracle says, tone cold and too calm. // ** _You want Batwoman deployed Hood or shall I—?_** \\\

She trails off and it takes him a moment to realise that command has deferred to him now that 'Wing's out of the loop.

"Is he on the move, O?" He asks instead.

// ** _He's on the main street now, out of the alley but he doesn't seem in any hurry._** \\\ She responds. Hood really wished he'd brought his bike. Jumping around with grapplings is a pain, especially on the waist, where they're equipped.

"Anything from 'Wing?" He asks hopefully.

// ** _Nothing,_** \\\ Oracle says. // ** _There's no cameras there and although her suit's reading hightened stress the rest of the feedback is glitched._** \\\

Dread welled up in his throat, almost paralysing him as it sunk deep into his chest and boots as he hit the marker for Eighth Street. If the suit's feedback was glitched it meant the suit was damaged.

And if the _suit_ was damaged, he hesitated to dwell on what state Nightwing would be in.

"Deploy Batwoman if this isn't finished by ten, Oracle," he barked. It was nearing quarter to and already his boots felt heavy. "All Patrols meet on Tenth, _now._ "

// ** _Already here,_** \\\ Black Bat parroted, voice tight. // ** _Bane is—_** \\\

Spoiler filled in the rest as Black's words failed her. // ** _Bastard's maxed out. It'll take enough sedatives to kill a dinosaur to take him down now. His venom's changed colour too._** \\\

By the time his sister has stopped rambling Hood has made it to the roof beside her, Gotham coming up behind him, the redness of his cheeks obvious even with the cowl cutting sharply at his jawline. He supposed he had been rushing just a _bit_.

But it was his wife's life on the line and he was sure Gotham knew that. It was justified.

It was like a deck of cards falling into place as the rest of the Clan lined the rooftops around Bane, earning a round of applause from the man himself. Robin and Black Bat hopped up on a red tiled shop to the giant's back left and right respectively; Spoiler, he and Gotham were facing the man head on, spread out over three roofs; Red Robin had taken his perch futhest behind the man, inching towards the alleyway that Nightwing had been downed in; Duo and Batwoman were on the street, Duo hanging off a streetlight and Batwoman swinging her legs angrily on a shop's rainshelter. Hood could respect Batwoman's turnout, simply because he wanted them all to be there for Bane's takedown.

They also needed all the firepower they could get without calling in any outsiders.

Outsiders were _not_ an option.

"Why, if I knew all I had to do was snap little _señora'_ _s_ back to get everyone's attention I would've done it years ago!" Bane knocked his head back, cackling like he hadn't just signed his death warrant.

Hood strongly suspected they were about to cash in on that million dollar death reward. He gripped the guns in his hands that bit  tighter. 

// ** _Waiting for the signal,_** \\\ Black gently prodded as Bane calmed down a bit and started showing off his new vemon, boasting about how he'd wagered a deal with Crane for it.

"Red Robin get to Nightwing as soon as possible, call for Batwoman if it's bad. Everyone else:" he sucked in a deep breath and let it go, counting to three. "I want him dead."

// ** _Understood,_** \\\ came the _altaneros_ response.

They kicked into action, jumping down onto the street like avenging angels, surrounding their prey. Bane's smile only grew as Hood stomped forward, guns cocked and high.

"Aww, and here's the hubby," he mocked. "Let's hope she can _stand_ to see you later."

He burst into laughter and Hood didn't understand why he found that so funny until Red R's voice came flitting over the comms, high with panic. // ** _I need Batwoman here pronto. H— Her back's not good._** \\\

Hood seen red. He roared, "I'll kill you!"

"That's what I like," Bane slapped his abs as if he was playing zoo and he was the gorrila. Hood felt like the lion, angry and uncontrollable. "A good threat always gets the blood pumping!"

"I'm sure," he snarled, unloading a few rounds to soften his skin as Duo got her tranqs ready, notching back her crossbow. "Better not bleed out yet, Bane, we've got hell planned for you."

A small, black bushed tranq arrow hit the man in the neck. Bane blinked mid-laugh at the threat, pulling up his hand to pluck the arrow out of his vein. It was a damn good shot, Hood had to admit.

"Your little sedatives do not work so easily on me," the giant chuckled over the scream of both guns and exploding batarangs alike. He flexed his biceps as he prepared to charge. "I thought you knew!"

// ** _It'll take five more to get him down,_** \\\ Duo announced quietly. Nevertheless, the words seemed to ring in Hood's head as he rolled out of the spaniard's way. Black decided to jump in, daggers drawn as she skipped around the man, slashing and drawing blood to further soak his red, shrivelled tank.

"Get them out quick, then." He ordered, springing back as Robin joined Black, working as a distraction for Duo. "What's the sit on Nightwing?"

There was a moment of hesitance on the other side, and all he could hear was the clang of metal as Robin and Black's blades clashed and Bane's roar as Duo got two shots in at once.

// ** _She's not good, Jay._** \\\ Batwoman said, voice so soft and too hushed. Something prickled in his eyes. His gut twisted. His helmet was getting too stuffy, the scene playing out before him not bloody enough. // ** _We need to get her help now, our bandages won't help her._** \\\

"What kind of help do you suggest?" He gritted out, display steaming up as he breathed harshly. His guns went off on automatic, hitting Bane as the fourth tranq hit. _One more,_ his head soothed.

// ** _Hospital's out of the question, they'd ask too much._** \\\ Red Robin said, almost thoughtfully despite how that was common knowledge.

No hospital whilst in capes, Bruce had always said.

Was Nightwing really _that_ bad that her condition had both Batwoman and Red Robin rethinking their rules?

_Damn it._

// ** _What about that clinic down near Dead?_** \\\ Spoiler spat out, throwing a couple smoke batarangs into the fray for Duo to get a clean shot in. // ** _Heard the doll doesn't ask questions._** **_It could be last resort, just as good as any hospital._** \\\

// ** _Or first,_** \\\ Red said, unaware of everyone's stricken panic as Bane stayed standing at the fifth tranq.

"Get her there!" Hood shouted, nodding at Duo to shoot the giant with muscles on his muscle's muscles again. Duo got three shots off before she was shaking her head.

// ** _That's all I've got._** \\\ She said, voice high.

Bane was still standing. Laughing now. "Crane maybe isn't as bad as he seems, seeing as how he made my venom more absorbant to tranqs and sedatives!"

Hood wondered if Bane knew they were the same thing.

// ** _We could always go the classical way,_** \\\ Gotham offered.

// ** _Classic?_** \\\ Duo shot back at her brother.

// ** _Y'know, the batarangs and sticks?_** \\\ Gotham tried, voice getting stronger as the siblings prepared to argue.

Hood had lost his patience. He had an idea and throughout the fight they'd somehow ended up halfway down the street, so what he had in mind was safe to play. "Cut it out. Circle round, training play 06. Black you still got that fear toxin?"

// ** _Plan understood,_** \\\ Black said instead of confirming.

"Good," he grunted, voice rising in a command. "Go!"

// ** _Hood?_** \\\ Red Robin asked as the smoke bombs went off. All clattering around, rolling and shooting up the grey smoke that would likely be gone too soon. Hood activated his filters as Black Bat dropped the fear gas, and jumped back, gun still aimed for the moving heat signature that was Bane.

"Yeah?" He grunted, watching as the man dropped to his knees, a shrill scream ringing out not three seconds later.

// ** _We can't move her,_** \\\ Batwoman said. // ** _We don't have the strength and we're afraid a stretcher will jarr her too much._** \\\

"So you want me to pick her up?" He coughed on his laugh. His body felt numb, as if he was swimming in ice. "Won't that do more damage?"

// ** _If she does wake up she'd at least know where she was._** \\\ Red said and didn't that just confirm everything?

She was pretty bad off.

Jason was stuck between feeling sick or killing the bastard that did this. Unfortunately for him, Spoiler stalked forth in the thinning smoke and with a firm tug, pulled out Bane's tubes.

"Leave him, Oracle can send the GCPD the co-ords later." He grunted at his family's unsure looks. "Patrol B head home, check up on Lark and cool off. I want Patrol C with me."

// ** _And A?_** \\\ Cullen asked.

"Keep a distanced watch, tell us when the coppers get here."

// ** _Aye, sir._** \\\

Jason had a wife to save.


End file.
